Go! St. Louis Half Marathon Recap

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Well, I can now say Half #9 (or 10) is in the books. I completed the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon yesterday in a time of 2:24.

The first question you might ask is that consistent with your goal? Yep. I have to be perfectly honest, right now, training to finish is about all I can handle. School is taking the majority of my free time (after work and family) so getting to the finish was my goal in a modestly reasonable time. Check!

My pre-race prep included planning what I was going to wear. St. Louis is notorious for having random weather and given that the day before it was cold (50 and rainy), I knew I needed to have a couple options in the event that it decided to down pour on us.

I also prepared a water bottle with water and Nuun Hydration ice cubes. I can’t drink Gatorade while I’m running. It’s too sweet. Nuun is much better and if I mix it with water, then I know I’ll be ok. Subsequently I forgot the bottle in the freezer. Fail!

The morning of, I had to take E with me because he was going to stay downtown with my family while I ran, so we both loaded up at 5:30 A.M. and headed down. I parked at my parents condo which is about a mile from the starting line (well it sounded like a good idea at the time). Free parking, who doesn’t love that?!

On my way to Corral C, I got a glimpse at what the elite athletes at the front of the pack look like. I like to call them Beasts! I will never see these people again! They will be home and showered by the time I cross the finish line but that’s ok.

I had planned on starting the race with Maddie from Food,Family and Fitness as well as Annica Nicole but the corrals were so packed there was NO WAY we were going to find each other. They were back further than me so I waited till the run started and found them as runners passed by. I did manage to find my long time friend and half marathon virgin Shane whose excitement over his first run made me that much more excited. How cute is he?!

Once the race actually started, it took us about 10 minutes to get moving and actually cross the start line and I found my running buddies right before we officially started.

Annica, Maddie and I started together but Maddie soon took off and blew us away. Annica and I stayed together the rest of the race and had a great time. We even managed to talk some and given the crazy hills on this course that in itself was an accomplishment. For those of you saying..”You’re in the Midwest, what hills do you have?” Let me answer by saying we have those nasty rolling hills. They just keep going and going. I could feel my butt calling on the plentiful reserves that it had just to get through it.

We were consistently running about a 10:00 – 10:30 min mile. It was a very comfortable pace which I was happy to race at. Especially considering I had somehow wrote down the date of the race wrong and so therefore missed one week of training. Fail #2.

The first few miles featured a Soulard neighborhood that welcomed us with a PJ party, and clydedales. I did have a First in this half. My first spectator sign. My family (little sister made it) came out to support me and touted this amazing sign. I might hang it in my cube at work just because I can.

Photo Courtesy of Go! STL

The middle miles gave the tourists a glimpse at the downtown area of the city. The final miles sent us down to the Central Westend and back. Did I mention it was ALL HILLS?

Overall I would say we were fortunate to have great weather,overcast skies and breezy are just fine by me. I knew the course wasn’t going to be easy, I’ve done this route 4 times so I was ready to just gut it out.

After the half, we (Annica and Maddie and I) met up for lunch with Kristen (ConcreteRunner) who crushed the race. She is such an amazing runner. We met at the Schlafly Bottleworks and I ate some delightfully high caloric Mac’n’Cheese but mostly I just chased E around. I am so ready for him to know how to sit nicely in a restaurant. At 1 1/2 years old, he just doesn’t get it yet. 🙂

Then we headed off but not before getting a group pic, check out Food, Fitness and Family for a great pic of us before we left. These girls are great! I’m so glad we met.

It’s on to the next event..the only triathlon I get to do anymore..a Sprint next month in my hometown. It should be fun considering I’ve had very little (none) time in a pool and I haven’t officially ridden my bike since last year’s tri. I know, I might want to squeeze in a little training which I’ll try to do between all the other activities.

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Comments

Congrats on the race! I just met your little sister (I work at SLU) and she pointed me to your blog. It’s great to “meet” another STL runner/mommy. I need all the advice I can get on how to balance all the pieces of life!

Ugh….my comments keep getting rejected and erased, so this might be brief.

Of course I loved critter (I’ll have to call her that), she’s a fellow redhead and web marketer!

My little guy will be 19 months on the first, so in the same ballpark as yours. I saw your post about how every thing is “this!….this!” We’re definitely in that same phase.

I’m struggling to fit running into my life at all these days. I used to be super-hard core with the marathon training, but now I’m jazzed if I sneak in 10 miles a month! I’m working on it though and hope I’ll find some inspiration from another woman in the same boat.

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Disclaimer

I am not a licensed medical professional. All views expressed on this website are based on my own personal research and experiences. Please consult your doctor with any medical issues, or before beginning a training program.